FIBROMYALGIA, the silent killer!

I began year 2020 full of energy. I felt great. I was managing my almost 20 year fibromyalgia journey fairly well. I was traveling, working, and living life at a level I hadn’t lived in several years. I was optimistic, started a new business, and was steadily moving toward a healthy weight. Then a worldwide pandemic hit! Our travel plans, of which we had 4 major trips planned throughout the year to various parts of the world and the country, came to a screeching halt. My part-time school bus driving came to a screeching halt. My new start-up travel agency came to a screeching halt. The world came to a screeching halt. And with the screeching halt if virtually all aspects of life, my health took a dramatic hit.

The feeling of a constant flow of liquid fire coursing through your body is probably the best description one can give when trying to explain what chronic inflammation and fibromyalgia feels like. And I would know since I have suffered from these ailments for 20 years. 

At first people think you’re crazy, depressed, faking it, a hypochondriac, or any number of other things. Even those closest to you don’t understand when to walk up a flight of stairs or do a few sit-ups can put you in bed for a week while a sudden flare up of intense pain debilitates you. You begin to question your own sanity because of the reactions of others. Even your doctor seems to blow off what you describe as “in your head.” Twenty years ago the medical profession scoffed at people like me. Today? They are finally listening and finding the medical evidence to prove what many of us have been saying for decades.

“…[I]t appears that many of the attributes of a Western lifestyle — such as a diet high in sugars and saturated fats, accompanied by little or no exercise — also make it easier for the body to become inflamed.

…

[I]t helps to know a little about the basic immunological response, a cascade of events triggered whenever the body is subjected to trauma or injury. … [W]ave after wave of immune cells flood the site, destroying pathogens and damaged tissue alike — there’s no carrying the wounded off the battlefield in third s war. (No wonder the ancient Romans likened inflammation to being on fire.) … Working in tandem, the innate and learned immunological defenses fight pitched battles until all the invading germs are annihilated. In a final flurry of activity, a last wave of cytokines is released, the inflammatory process recedes, and healing begins. Problems begin when, for one reason or another, the inflammatory process persists and becomes chronic.”

When I began my journey with chronic inflammation and fibromyalgia, I was one of the “lucky” ones who had a doctor who took me seriously. She tested me for multiple conditions (lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.) only have all my test come back normal and within healthy ranges. Frustrating! Was it really all in my head after all? She finally did what’s called a pressure points test and determined that I had something called fibromyalgia. She tried a variety of medications on me only to find that I am one of those people who has most of the negative reactions to medications that rarely happen! So, I am unable to use medicine to reduce my pain! Bummer!!!! Suffer on I apparently was going to have to do!

After about 13 years of constant suffering, and only getting worse with each passing year, out of desperation I began looking for alternative methods of combating my condition (as well as the resulting and predictable weight gain associated with a lack of exercise). Thank god I did, because I stumbled onto the connection that my diet had to inflammation and to my pain levels. My journey has been up and down over the past several years. But, I have steadily improved despite the periodic flare ups and set backs, which I am now able to predict fairly accurately. 

The one area of my life that has been most dramatically affected by my condition though is my breathing. Inflammation can kill! It has played havoc with my lungs these past several years – something I had never had to deal with in the 50+ prior years of my life. I am not a smoker, but I did grow up in a household reeking with years of secondhand smoke. Apparently, that exposure to secondhand smoke combined with a couple decades of a very stress-filled life triggered my chronic inflammatory condition. Joy! 

Medical research has not found a definitive answer to the problem of chronic inflammation or fibromyalgia, but it’s refreshing to see the profession finally trying to find the root causes rather than to just mask the symptoms with drugs that can cause more problems than they help.

“… [T]here are things we all can do to dampen our inflammatory fires. Some of the advice may sound terribly familiar, but we have fresh reasons to follow through. Losing weight induces those fat cells — remember them? — to produce fewer cytokines. So does regular exercise, 30 minutes a day most days of the week. Flossing your teeth combats gum disease, another source of chronic inflammation. Fruits, vegetables and fish are full of substances that disable free radicals. So if you want to stop inflammation, get off that couch, head to the green market and try not to stub your toe on the way.”

So what to do while the medical profession tries to find actual answers? I am a huge advocate for natural remedies whenever possible. There are times when they are not possible, but whenever possible natural is always better! I have had incredible success in combating inflammation through diet and exercise. Eight years ago I thought I was literally dying and would be on disability for the remainder of my life. Today? 

I have not fully overcome all the effects of chronic inflammation and I still suffer from some major flare ups of the fibromyalgia, but that feeling of complete hopelessness and despair are mostly gone. I have tools in my belt that work, and I find more tools with each passing day. 

My journey is not done, but hope is on the horizon!

(Source for quoted material: http://www.inflammationresearchfoundation.org/inflammation-science/inflammation-details/time-cellular-inflammation-article/)

INTEREST vs COMMITMENT 

Interest = No Action

  • Sounds cool
  • Dreams about it but takes no action toward it
  • Let’s others tell them it’s not right for them because they aren’t good enough

COMMITMENT = Action

  • May not know how to achieve it, but hits the ground running with activity to make it happen
  • Finds people who have already done it to show them how to do it
  • Let’s nothing stand in their way to achieve it

But, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve

Are you living YOUR dream or someone else’s dream, and saying 

I would’ve, but …

I should’ve, but …

I could’ve, but …

Dream + Knowledge + Sustained Action = Success

THE WISE MAN AND THE COW

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a Chinese wise man and his disciple. One day in their travels, they saw a hut in the distance. As they approached they realized that it was occupied in spite of its extremely poor appearance.

In that desolate place where there were no crops and no trees, a man lived with his wife, three young children and a thin, tired cow. Since they were hungry and thirsty, the wise man and his disciple stopped for a few hours and were well received. At one point, the wise man asked:

“This is a very poor place, far away from anything. How do you survive?”

“You see that cow? That’s what keeps us going,” said the head of the family. “She gives us milk, some of it we drink and some were make into cheese. When there is extra, we go into the city and exchange the milk and cheese for other types of food. That’s how we survive.”

The wise man thanked them for their hospitality and left. When he reached the first bend in the road, he said to his disciple:

“Go back, get the cow, take her to the cliff in front of us, and push her off.”

The disciple could not believe what he was hearing.

“I cannot do that, master! How can you be so ungrateful? The cow is all they have. If I throw it on the cliff, they’ll have no way to survive. Without the cow, they’ll all die!”

The wise man, an elderly Chinese man, took a deep breath and repeated the order: “Go ahead. Push the cow off the cliff.”

Though outraged at what he was being asked to do, the student was resigned to obey his master. He returned to the hut and quietly led the animal to the edge of the cliff and pushed. The cow fell down the cliff and died.

As the years passed by, remorse for what he had done never left the disciple. One spring day, the guilt became too much to bear and he left the wise man and returned to that little shack. He wanted to find out what had happened to that family, to help them out, apologize, or somehow make amends. 

Upon rounding a turn in the road, he could not believe what his eyes were showing him. In place of the poor shack there was a beautiful house with trees all around, a swimming pool, several cars in the garage, a satellite dish, and on and on. Three good-looking teenagers and their parents were celebrating their first million dollars. 

The heart of the disciple froze. What could have happened to the family? Without a doubt, they must have been starving to death and forced to sell their land and leave. At that moment, the student thought they must all be begging on the street corners of some city. He approached the house and asked a man that was passing by about the whereabouts of the family that had lived there several years before.

“You’re looking at it,” said the man, pointing to the people gathered around the barbecue. Unable to believe what he was hearing, the disciple walked through the gate and took a few steps closer to the pool where he recognized the man from several years before, only now he was strong and confident, the woman was happy, and the children were now nice-looking teenagers. He was dumbfounded, and went over to the man and asked:

“What happened? I was here with my teacher a few years ago and this was a miserable place. There was nothing. What did you do to improve your lives in such a short time?”

The man looked at the disciple, and replied with a smile:

“We had a cow that kept us alive. She was all we had. But one day she fell down the cliff and died. To survive, we had to start doing other things, develop skills we didn’t even know we had. And so, because we were forced to come up with new ways of doing things, we are now much better off than before.”

Moral of the story: Sometimes our dependency on something small and limited is the biggest obstacle to our growth. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to you is to push your “cow” down the cliff. Once you free yourself of the thought “it’s little but it’s certain,” or of that idea “I am not doing great but there are people who are much worse than me” — then your life will really change.


Is there a cow in your life that is keeping you miserable?